Turopolje museum

For fifty years it has been a site you can’t possibly avoid if you want to learn something more about the history of this region. Newly restored building, it itself played a great role in town’s rich history, because it was the former town hall of the Noble Commune of Turopolje.

Turopolje Museum was founded in 1960. It houses archaeological, ethnographic, cultural and historic collections of Velika Gorica region. Museum materials cover about 3500 objects and over 20 000 photographs and negatives. Each exhibit hides its own story; it’s a little piece in the mosaic of history.

Open University

Open University was founded in 1960, called the National University "Juraj Kokot" at that time and to this day it’s been listening to the pulse of Velika Gorica and striving to meet their daily needs for education and culture. A rich range of facilities was completed in 1980, when it expanded to another location in the newly built settlement Galženica – the House of Culture, where the first gallery in Velika Gorica was opened as well as the regional library and chamber hall. The most vital cultural activities have remained till today at the Open University (theatre, galleries, concerts, publishing and cinema) together with the organisation of workshops, training programs and foreign language courses.

Open University

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Galežnica gallery

It started working in 1980 as a part of the new multimedia complex in the Cultural Centre Galženica. It is the first modern gallery in Velika Gorica and it has successfully operated since then, as a part of the Cultural Centre of the Open University.

With its representative exhibition premises and its location on the central town square, Stjepan Radić Square, in Galženica, the zone of an architectural and urban redevelopment, the gallery opens its doors not only to prominent people of the modern and contemporary art, but also to local artists with their local importance.

Gorica Stage

Since its inception, Stage has made a large number of first-run titles, from big drama plays, children's plays, performances in collaboration with schools, dance performances, co-productions. Performances took place in the Gorica hall, in the Galženica hall, but also on many guest appearances at home and abroad. On Gorica Stage a large number of Croatian theatre creators – from the oldest-established ones, to those who are just beginning their theatre work, performed.

Libraries

Libraries and reading rooms in Turopolje have long tradition. Interest and love for books are deeply rooted in these regions. Town library Velika Gorica is a traditional descendant of the Reading Room in Velika Gorica, established in 1886. Since October 1999 it has operated independently on two locations: The Central Library 37 Zagrebačka Street and the Regional Galženica Library, 5 S. Radić Square.

Monuments

At the end of 1970s, together with town planning development and expansion of new settlements and whole town district, people became conscious of their needs for artistic – aesthetic development of the city and its surroundings, that is, they wanted to enrich public places and green parks with pieces of art.

Public monuments

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Sculpture 'Legend'

Sculpture "Legend", placed in 1985 on the grass area next to the main communication in Matice Hrvatske Street, is a representative work of art of our academic sculptor Šime Vulas, professor at the Academy of Art in Zagreb. It is one of the classics of modern Croatian Sculpture of the second half of the 20th century.

The sculpture was modeled in wood in 1980. It is the original copy of which the bronze casting has been placed in Ludbred. With its compact voluminous mass, geometrically stylized low plastic structure of the facet surface, Vulas’s sculpture, except from demonstrating all basic traits of its sculpture, sublimes poetic and mythic power of totemic plastic speech of universal importance.

The sculpture 'The tree in full leaf' by Dora Kovačević

It was installed in the municipality administration building in 1982. With its opulent abstractly geometrical forms of the Baroque expressiveness, spatially determined and harmoniously composed architecture of the statue indicates the serenity and aesthetical balance of impressionable ambiance experience, worthy of the public and community function of the locality.

Bronze statue 'Bomber'

In the context of memorial plastic arts, there stands with superiority the bronze statue "Bomber", robust and mighty, with monumental pretensions of Emil Bohutinski, the sculptor. In 1951, it was installed in half kneeling position on a highly elevated concrete stand in the park next to the building of the Open University. This artist studied at the Art Academy in Zagreb and he improved his skill at the Accademia di belle arti in Rome.

Memorial to a great Croatian poet and writer Vladimir Nazor

We should surely mention the bronze bust, a memorial to Vladimir Nazor, great Croatian poet and writer, put up on the marble stand between Kolareva and Magdalenić Streets in 1984, on the celebration day of the local community. With firm and strong modeling of plastically pointed face expressions and contemplate characterization of the statue, this work of art of Marija Ujević, academic sculptor and professor at the Art Academy of Zagreb, imposes with its quality.

A bronze story 'Ivana Brlić Mažuranić, Gita i Hlapić'

The bronze statue, which is with its form and content pretty close to children, decorates the garden of the two institutions for children with special needs. It is the work of art of well known sculptor Marija Ujević. In the organization of the Centre for Education of Children and Adolescents in Zagrebačka Street, on the celebration of 50 years of institution’s activities, the artist has worked out the theme in a stylistically recognizable manner. She made a bronze casting of a very interesting story of "Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić – Gita and Hlapić", minimized group composition with the central figure of a famous writer sitting among her literary heroes.

Statue 'A boy with a goose'

In 1984, on the other side of the town, in the courtyard of ''The Kindergarten Ciciban'' a bronze statue "A boy with a goose" was put up. It is a work of art of Smiljan Holy, academic sculptor, which is with its theme and composition pretty suitable for children. This work characterizes sincerity and simplicity of soft naturalistic expression of motive, with its clear lines and shapes and in its best academic manner it figuratively expresses pleasing children’s game.

Sculpture 'The Bird on the ground'

One should mention sculptor intervention on the open area next to the building of the Post Office in Kolareva Street. In cooperation with the kindergarten children young academic sculptor of Velika Gorica, Mladen Mikulin, shaped a sculpture in the oak wood. It is "The Bird on the ground", which with its simplicity and basic artistic expressions of motive, with its suggestive clear shapes of an archaically expressed form, reveals the artist of a strong sculptural individuality, an excellent master of classical craft and contemporary experience.

Sculpture 'Fontana'

On the broad area of suburbs and different locations we could point out some more very valuable sculptor realizations as: "Fontana", a sculpture which is composed of geometrically stylized wooden thin pieces of board in the shape of a well, a work of a well know academic sculptor Zlatko Zlatić, set up in 1981 on the factory premises for the celebration of the seventieth anniversary of "DI Turopolje", then contemporary sculptor memorial on the place of formation of Turopolje-Posavina Detachment in Čička Poljana, the work of art of our well known Croatian sculptor Ante Jakić – Sony and Mladen Pejaković, academic painter and the professor of The Art Academy in Zagreb.

A memorial for defenders who lost their lives in Croatian War of Independence - 'Dove'

LocationZagrebačka Street and Jurja Dobrile Street with the access to the Town Cemetery.

Sculpture descriptionThe memorial is formed as a harmonious composition of the door symbol (the Timber Gate "Krška vrata" in the forest "Turopoljski lug") and the symbol of the dove.

The sculpture Dove is put up on the beam which stands on two posts leaned on each other at the angles of 79° and 88°. Each post consists of two blocks. The bases of posts read 100x140 cm and 110x170 cm, and they are 355 cm apart. Because of the gradient, the poles at the top are 228 cm apart. Posts are made of granite, burned and rough surfaces, with the height of 5 m.

On these posts the beam is placed with the range of 228 cm and with the total length of 425 cm. The dove sits on the beam with its wings spread 590 cm in diameter and with its total height of 3, 40 m. The monument has the height of 7,40 m in total. The dove and the beam where it stands are carried out of a corrosion-resistant metal sheet.

In front of the memorial, on the horizontal line of the post base of 310 cm there is another self supporting element, a monolith which widens in the upper part in the shape of the cross, with dimensions of a rectangular cut of 90x125 cm and the height of 300 cm (276 cm from the field elevation). The monolith is also carried out of granite with smooth surfaces and direct edges. The names of 121 defenders killed in war are engraved on the monolith.

AuthorMladen Mikulin, born in 1958 in Velika Gorica. He lives and works in Vukovina. In 1986, at the Art Academy in Zagreb he got a university degree from the sculpture department section. He received the award ‘’Sedam sekretara SKOJ-a’’ in 1987, the second award at the Triennial of Croatian Sculpture in 1988, and several important contest rewards for his public monuments. In 1992, he had an exhibition in Grande Palais in Paris. He is the author of the monument for Cardinal Stepinac in Munich and Melbourne, as well as for Bartol Kašić monument in Rome. In The Paris Cemetery PERE LA CHAISE he put up a tombstone with a portrait of Jim Morrison.

He erected more than 30 public sculptures in Croatia. The materials he uses in his work are: wood, stone, bronze and stainless steel.